Besides being a general nuisance to human beings, mosquitoes, specifically Culicidae (mosquito), are vectors of many diseases throughout the world. In an effort to eliminate insect-borne diseases, such as West Nile virus, malaria and dengue fever, a global effort has been made to diminish or eliminate these insects from areas inhabited by humans.
The most frequently applied methods in the struggle against the Culicidae are biological insecticides, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus sphaericus, together with chemicals, such as the organophosphates and pyrethroids. However, because of the obvious environmental impact, these methods are not ideal. Moreover, it is well documented that mosquitoes can develop resistance to these measures over time. As such, these programs are not sustainable in the long run.
More environmentally friendly methods of controlling mosquito populations have looked at trapping or destroying the eggs or larvae before they have a chance to mature or capturing the gravid female before or after laying its eggs. In some cases, this has involved providing artificial breeding pools that attract gravid mosquitoes and eliminate the eggs or larvae from the pool before the mosquitoes mature and become airborne.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,443 discloses an apparatus where the artificial breeding pool contains a filter that traps the eggs and larvae and then exposes the captured biomass to air causing the biomass to dry and thus be eliminated. U.S. Pat. No. 6,990,768 discloses a similar apparatus with the exception that the filter is provided in the form of a belt that captures the biomass and then passes it through a crushing mechanism to eliminate the eggs and larvae.
Efforts to provide a breeding pool where mosquitoes are allowed to mature, but are trapped before they enter the environment, have also been made. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,697 discloses an artificial breeding pool where the eggs are trapped behind a screen that prevents the newly hatched mosquitoes from escaping into the environment. U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,999 discloses an apparatus that traps newly hatched mosquitoes in a separate column from where the eggs were laid.
Although standing water will naturally attract most insects that rely on water to lay their eggs, chemical attractants can be added to the water to increase the attractiveness of the pool to the gravid insect. For example, US Patent Publication No. 2008/0003197 discloses a controlled release attractant for use in an artificial breeding pool. Still, there is a need to develop artificial attractants used in the artificial breeding pool to attract gravid mosquito.
Nowadays, there is a greater realization that specific species of mosquitoes are attracted to unique attractants, in particular chemoattractants, and prefer to lay their eggs in a pool of water that are inhabited by their own species. As such, there is a need to develop attractant such as artificial chemoattractants that effectively attract specific species of mosquitoes.